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FRESH RASPBERRY SAUCE

I love raspberries. In fact they are my favorite berry. Although, strawberries and blackberries both run a close second!) So when I saw fresh raspberries for sale at our local farmer’s market this past Monday, I just had to buy a 4 pint box. And since I needed to build a light dessert for our 4th of July celebration with good friends Ken and Christine, I decided to try out this recipe from my favorite magazine – Cooking Light. Well it turns out Ken is a raspberry lover too. Actually we all are, but Ken gets just about as excited about raspberries as Scooby Doo does when given a Scooby snack. It’s really quite fun to watch. (Sorry Ken, but if you can’t rat on your good friends, who can you rat on?)

Anyway, this sauce over vanilla ice cream was a total success. What made the dessert course even more delicious; Ken had made a blackberry cobbler. OMG – we were all in berry heaven until we couldn’t look at another berry, much less take another bite. What a fun way to spend the 4th of July. Watching fireworks from our good friend’s deck (west side of Camano) and eating raspberries and blackberries with shear abandon. Good times my friends, good times! Thanks again K & C for another wonderful evening together.

Please don’t take my word that this is the best raspberry sauce you will ever taste. Make it for yourself. If you end up disagreeing with me, shoot me an email. I’ll take your thoughts into consideration, promptly dismiss them, and proceed directly to the kitchen to build myself yet another batch of this amazing berry sauce. Yay raspberries!

p.s. If you want to take this whole raspberry sauce over ice cream to an even higher level, after you scoop ice cream into individual bowls, pour on some warmed Dark Chocolate Raspberry Sauce (recipe below) and then spoon on as much of this raspberry sauce as the bowl will allow.

2 pints (4 cups) fresh raspberries, divided

¼ c. sugar

1 T. raspberry liqueur (Chambord, Framboise)

½ tsp. fresh lemon juice

Combine 1 pint of the raspberries and sugar in a food processor; process until pureed. Press mixture through a fine sieve over a medium bowl; discard solids. Stir in remaining 2 cups of raspberries, raspberry liqueur, and lemon juice. Cover and chill. Wonderful over vanilla ice cream, pound cake, or angel food cake. Watch for my recipe for Chocolate Angel Food Cake in the near future.

Whisk cocoa, sugar, and salt together in a medium-sized saucepan. Gently whisk in the water. Slowly bring to a boil and cook for 1 minute. Remove from heat and stir in butter, vanilla, and raspberry liqueur or water. Serve warm or allow to cool completely and store in the refrigerator. Warm before pouring on ice cream.